By Russel Lowe
Published by The Le Games
Pages: 30 (onscreen version), 27 (print version)
Fully bookmarked
Disclaimer: This is not a playtest review. I did not buy Unorthodox Monks, it was sent to me for review.
Unsurprising to those already familiar with the Unorthodox series of class “books” by The Le Games, Unorthodox Monks arrives as a zipped file containing three versions. One version is a PDF in landscape format, meant for viewing on-screen. The second version is done in the standard portrait format, for those who hate reading documents in landscape, or for printing out. The third version is in Rich-Text-Format, allowing one to easily copy-and-paste material into their own notes. All the documents are in standard two-column format. Besides the front cover of the print version, only the on-screen copy, that is to say, the landscape version, contains any artwork. I was not particularly inspired by any of the artwork, but it did get the job done of breaking up large sections of text. Both PDFs come fully bookmarked.
Unorthodox Monks contains five new 20-level monk class variants to introduce into your game. The title page, if you ignore the fact that an obvious copy-and-paste error claims you are instead reading “Unorthodox Druids”, also contains brief suggestions on how to balance the various classes for your own game. The suggestions are vague and all-encompassing (i.e. change hit dice or number of skill points per level), and I would have preferred to see such advice presented for each individual class, tailored specifically to potentially problematic class features. Because really, if you’re having a problem with a particular character class, chances are it’s not caused by the class having too many or too few skill points. What would also have been nice would be for the, admittedly rather short, table of contents to contain page numbers. The provided bookmarks don’t work if you print the thing out.
The first monk variant to which we are introduced is the Chaos Monk. Whereas traditionally monks tend to have a lawful bent, chaos monks gain their power from their passions and anger. I’m not sure if it was intentional or not, but the beginning of the class write-up made me immediately think of the Sith in the Star Wars universe. Perhaps that is the archetype that this class variant is trying to emulate and adapt to the world of D&D fantasy. Chaos Monks come from those who fail to find inner peace, and for one reason or another, leave the tranquility of the monastery to find their own path. In terms of abilities, it gives up the monk’s good Will save, slightly slows down the unarmed strike damage progression, and removes the various special abilities ala Wholeness of body and Diamond soul. In return it gains the ability to rage like a barbarian, with a similar progression schedule, and the ability to imbue an unarmed strike while in rage with a weapon property such as flaming or merciful or unholy. In short, the class takes away many of the features that make the traditional monk’s more survivable, and replaces them with several of a more offensive bent. Interestingly, the Flurry of blows class feature has been replaced with something called Flurry of hits, with the intent of slightly weakening the class ability. And much like in the PHB, there is a Flurry of hits attack bonus entry in the class progression table, which has the odd property that, compared to the class’s BAB for the same level, the relative penalties for attempting a Flurry of hits sometimes go up as the character gains a level. In addition, included is a table for the unarmed strike damage for small and large characters, but it is exactly the same as that in the PHB. Which is to say, it ignores the Chaos Monk’s slower rate of progression. Oops.
Next up is the Lasserator (sic). The class abilities for this particular monk variant had me thinking of the characters in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Focusing on a specific weapon, this heavily wuxia-inspired class gains a variety of abilities related to striking with speed and precision, using the weapon for blocking attacks both melee and ranged, and jumping. It sacrifices again the Will save and the unarmed strike progression, in addition to many of the monk’s usual special abilities including the Flurry of blows. Which I find odd, because it seems like such an obvious shoe-in for the class to be able to flurry with its focused weapon. Interestingly, where the table for smaller and larger sized lasserators’ unarmed strike damage does match up with class’ damage progression, the column headings themselves refer to the damage for small and large “perfect warriors”. Nowhere else in the document does the phrase “perfect warrior” exist.
The third monk variant presented is the Shadow Warrior. Not too surprisingly, the inspiration for this class is clearly and unabashedly borrowed from the ninja archetype. What is pleasantly different is that it doesn’t go the obvious route and give the class sneak attack dice. Rather, in the same circumstances that a rogue would be able to use their sneak attack ability, the Shadow Warrior can perform a Shade Strike, which does double damage. As the class progresses, on a Shade Strike the Shadow Warrior can choose to instead do a point of Strength or Constitution damage rather than double damage. However, it is a full-round action, making it impossible to use during a surprise round (huh?) or with iterative attacks (double-huh?). Making it even less appealing, critical hits are ignored on a Shade Strike. The class is otherwise something of a rogue with an unarmed strike damage progression. Some of the other class features sound nifty, but are of dubious benefit. For instance, Cloud the Foolish Mind forces those trying to make opposed Spot or Listen checks against the Shadow Warrior to Take 10 on their checks. Perhaps the most entertaining class ability is the Immortal Dodge. If a blow would bring a high enough level Shadow Warrior below 0 hp, on a successful DC 25 reflex save the character instinctively dimension doors away unharmed, sans any clothing and equipment! Another particular class feature I find interesting and flavourful is Mind Over Flesh. A Shadow Warrior gives up the good Fortitude save progression of the regular monk, but with Mind Over Flesh they get some of it back, as they can use their Will save against regular poison and disease effects instead. Why this is a supernatural ability, thereby being suppressed while in an antimagic field, say, utterly mystifies me.
The Snake Master does not, as one might guess from the name, actually summon, keep, or otherwise control snakes. Rather, over the course of the class’ advancement, it gains the capability to deal ability damage with its unarmed strikes, interrupting the target’s ki, and simulating to some degree the effects of a snake’s venom. As well, much of the flavor of the class is snake-like in nature. For example, at 3rd level, it gains Snakeskin, where the Snake Master can turn their skin to scales, thereby gaining a minor AC boost and a small amount of acid resistance in exchange for a penalty to Charisma.
Finally we come to the Spiritual Defender, which is sort of what you get if you mix the monk with a paladin, a spiritual pugilist dedicated to combating undead and evil creatures. Along the way the class gains an AC and save bonus similar to that provided by a protection from evil spell, extra damage to evil creatures and undead, the ability to penetrate an undead or evil creature’s damage reduction, immunity to death spells and effects, eventually even to negative levels. In return it sacrifices the base monk’s speed, its good reflex save, and evasion.
Unorthodox Monks is full of good ideas, taking archetypes that are both familiar and foreign, and making a passable stab at fleshing them out for D&D. It is short, simple, and to the point. There are no prestige class, no magic items, no feats, no variant animal companion rules, just five new monk classes, exactly what it claims to provide. But its implementation is somewhat lackluster, and where it fails, it fails for editing and an understanding of how the underlying d20 game system is supposed to work.
When I first flipped through the PDF to get a feel for it, I almost immediately did a double-take at the second class name, Lasserator. Presumably stemming from the root word “lacerate”. A nit-pick perhaps, but as a first impression, it did not inspire me with confidence. The title page claims to be for “Unorthodox Druids”. Typos exist such as “Hide in Plain Site”. The tables describing damage for small and large unarmed strikes are formatted differently. All of these little things eventually add up. Why does the Spiritual Defender “Abilities” paragraph claim that Charisma is an important skill for the Spiritual Defender because it aids in their ability to turn undead, when the class itself isn’t actually given any ability to turn undead? Or indeed anything that works off of the character’s Charisma score. Several of the class write-ups also indicate that Wisdom is an important ability score, even when the class itself never gains any special abilities that key off of it. Why does Snake Sense describe being able to sense all creatures touching the ground within range, but never actually explain what that range is or what it refers to. Why are the Fortitude save DCs calculated differently for the Snake Master’s different special abilities? Specifically, why is one (8 + Class Level) and another (10 + half Class Level + Ability bonus)? It’s not because one is a supernatural ability and the other is an extraordinary ability. If it were, the first DC would be calculated using the formula for the second. Why is the Spiritual Defender allowed to flat-out bypass the damage reduction of evil creatures, that is, roughly half of the creatures in the Monster Manual, instead of using some variant of the already familiar ki strike mechanic?
Couple all of this with the generic disclaimer at the beginning that the presented classes are not necessarily balanced for everyone’s campaign (why not balance them against those presented in the PHB?), and as a DM I have little confidence that I can take these classes and use them “out of the box”, as it were. That said, the classes are interesting at least, and they do provide novel approaches to some of the more common archetypes players would want to play. Before purchasing, just be aware that some tinkering will invariably have to take place before your game’s DM will be happy with these classes.
Reviewed by Scott Benoit
